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Sam Gideon might be an extraordinary man. He might have a dozen medals to his name. He’s probably stopped evil half a dozen times. He might’ve saved an orphan or two, even. But Sam Gideon is incapable of boosting up stairs on his knees without the ARS suit, so clearly the man is worthless without it. Even Link can roll up stairs without the help of any new fangled tech, you know.

Platinum games wants to show you just how awesome the battlesuit is, via trailer.

War can’t accelerate on the backs of normal human meatsacks, you know.

Sure, it might be just an ad which tries to convince you to preorder the game. Don’t think it’s not worth watching, though! It also shows us new locations, enemies and gameplay, too–not to mention the specific gun bonuses you’ll receive if you preorder the game.

Sargeant McGruff also makes a guest appearance, delivering his terribad, but usual one-liners.

Meet him in all his CGI goodness, that is. He’s from DARPA, and he has secrets. Since, you know, part of the indoctrination into DARPA is holding secrets. But these secrets? They might get in the way of McGruff’s intent to

And so it looks like Sam is going to be butting his head constantly with Sargeant McGruff here.

What we’ve seen so far is probably not indicative of how fast-paced and crazy this game actually is. Thankfully, this preview from FirstPlay moves at about a million bullets per second through locations, enemies and power ups which we haven’t seen before. Watch in awe as Sam punches a rocket twice his size back at a giant mech, or as he snipes some chump in slo-mo….if you can keep up, that is.

The last few days have seen a bevy of new information released for Platinum Game’s upcoming third-person shooter Vanquish, and we’re here to tell you all about the new details.

“I wanted people to really feel the action going on during the game” said lead designer Shinji Mikami, in a recent fan-interview. This idea is key, as it sets precedent for all the mechanics we’re about to detail for you. Vanquish is meant to be, above all, a ‘crunchy’ game.

The fact that you’re getting shot often heightens your adrenaline, and we’re not just speaking metaphorically here: when you’ve taken enough damage, Sam’s suit enters a slo-mo phase, a literal ‘fight or flight.’ This is your suit’s survival mode, conveniently packaged into a gameplay element which we’re no doubt familiar with. Additionally, players will be able to boost Sam along the ground. Opening fire with you loadout–which, at the moment, has been confirmed to include a assault rifle, heavy machine gun, sniper rifle, shotgun, two types of grenades–while in this mode will also cause a slo-mo effect.

Your suit may as well be considered your end-all-be all: you are nothing without it. This much is apparent when you start seeing how easily your suitless allies get taken out. Unsurprisingly, the responsibility for keeping them alive falls on you. Not only do they provide support while on the battlefield, the number of people you have lost is relayed back to you at the end of each level. Should you feel like playing as a good Samaritan, your Sam will be braving even more danger than usual to make sure everyone gets back home safely.

You are no god inside your suit, however. Should you choose to use its powers, you can bet that each one will be followed by a cooldown. Ignoring this will cause your suit to overheat, essentially meaning that playing Vanquish is an exercise in maintaining the energy levels of your suit intact. Overheating causes your suit to beep, a little reminder that tells you that you’re now officially vulnerable. Adding to the sense of vulnerability is the game’s old school approach on aiming: there’s no auto-assist here to make you feel better about yourself. I can’t even remember the last game I’ve played which didn’t have the auto-aim feature!

Those of us that have seen Vanquish in action, can tell that it errs on the more western approach of game design. When describing the difference between east and western games, Mikami notes that western games focus on “realism. From the graphics, to the worlds, games created in the west tend to want to simulate reality at a very high level.” It seems as if he’s taken ‘realism’ to mean a visceral approach, but this doesn’t just explain the core gameplay of Vanquish. It also explains why Shinji choose to make the game a third-person shooter. Earlier, we quoted Shinji on his desire to make immerse players in the action. He goes on to say that the third-person view is meant to facilitate that feeling, that in order to pit players in the action, they “needed to show the player on the screen.”

More explosions, mechs, gunfire and sci-fi than you can shake a stick at. Also, power slides and this game’s ‘witch time’ (mech time? robot time? fuckin-a time?). And techno music. All robot games require techno music, you see? It’s the music of the robot gods.

More and more I realize the genius of this game: it is crunchy in every single sense of the word.

Various things of note: slidy roadie run. Slo-mo action while in the air. A morphing suit. Giant mechs. Is it just me, or do the voices sound like the voice actors from Gears of War, too? Lastly, HAVE SOME JUICE.

Talking about Western games vs Eastern games is all the rage right now. It will all reach critical mass once we start talking about east vs west RPGs using motion controls while viewed in 3D, as told by Peter Molyneux when speaking about how amazing Fable III will be. Then, we will kill all the infidels and this wretched monster will fade silently away into the moonlight. Yes, that is how it will be.

Not one to squander an opportunity to get yet another person’s opinion on the East VS West debate, Joystiq’s interview with Shinji Mikami dabbles briefly on the same tried and true territory. On the subject of why development focus seems to be moving toward the western market, Shinji states that “So, at the most basic level as a Japanese person it does make me kind of sad. Right now the Japanese market and the Western market in terms of games are very different. And on a personal level I enjoy Western games a lot more. And, so, even if I make a game that is closer in taste to the Western market, the Japanese audience doesn’t really appreciate it too much.” Shinji thinks that Capcom is one of the only companies out there that can create games which successfully appeal to both markets.”

On the subject of Vanquish, Shinji had a few interesting things to say. For example, why is Vanquish called Vanquish? Why, its elementary my dear, says Shinji: “Vanquish,” the word obviously has to do with conquest and destruction. In any war there’s always a winning side and a losing side, there’s winners and losers, but one of the themes in the story is, what makes a true victor in any conflict? And so that’s where the name ties in.” Makes a lot of sense to me! He also lets out that Vanquish places gameplay over story, which might explain

Lastly, Shinji reveals initial concerns regarding player’s ability to identify with the main character. “Actually, that is one of the largest concerns that I had early on in production where I was afraid that the players wouldn’t be able to identify with the character. That’s actually why the facemask comes off. So you can see the main character’s face from time to time. That’s why we did that, because we were afraid that people wouldn’t be able to identify with him.” Which is strange, because, we’ve already had a bunch of very iconic characters–like Samus and Master Chief–which we grew to love despite the inability to see what they looked like. In fact, not being able to see the face makes it easier to slip into the “blank slate” character, no?

So, since I’m assuming that you have to take off the mask to smoke…is the smoking “feature” included to help us “identify” with the character more closely, too?

Andriasang has an interview with Vanquish’s director, Shinji Mikami that elucidates on some interesting new details about the game. As per usual, we bring these details to you!

The game, unsurprisingly, has its own take on bullet time/witch time/pig tiems. It’s called AR time, and using it will heat up your suit. We have no idea what AR stands for, but since mullet time is almost always cheating–I mean, cmon, people can’t keep up with you!–we’re going to call it “Action Replay.” You can equip up to three weapons, and these weapons can be ranked up. One such way, one weird way, might I add, is that once your ammo is at full capacity, any extra ammo that you pick up will go toward the increase of the weapon’s rank.

The game will be largely inorganic, Shinji stating that the closest thing to a more natural setting is something that “resembles” a forest. Actually, it’s probably the Amazon forest in the future. Someone owes me something if I’m right. Other more natural elements will be visible during play, though, it just doesn’t sound as if they will be a setting for you to explore.

Shinji warned that people who look for getting a high score on “medium” enemies should note that they will probably not come out of those encounters alive. “You won’t have time to look at score while you play,” he said. That sounds a bit…lame, then, because why make it take up precious HUD space if it’s not something we’ll have time to look at? Shinji also tells us that there is no aim-assist on normal–that’s something only available on easy. He says that “We felt that this game would be more suited to a more difficult setting rather than something that can be played easily.” Hey, sounds fine to me. The game is made for people who play a lot of games, and while this approach is exclusive to “normal” folks, with such a huge focus toward casual gamers in the industry as of late, I’ll take anything I can get.

In a more “cooler” note, and I say cooler because we all know that people who smoke are cool, one of the game’s…features? Let’s say features. One of the game’s features is that you can smoke during combat. It doesn’t sound as if smoking will damage your health, ala MGS, but it still has an effect. When you toss a cigarette, enemy robots will react to it for some strange reason and try to attack you. So really, it’s like an aggro stick or something for the more douchey among us. You can smoke up to three times per stage, though Shinji says that “”When actually playing the game, I don’t think you’ll have time to smoke a cigarette.” Well, fuck that. I’m smoking my damn cigarettes because I’m a smooth motherfucker. Persona 3 said so.

If we didn’t convince you that Vanquish is awesome last time, we’re going to keep trying until that is the only thought your brain is capable of thinking. We have two choice videos for you: an interview with the director, Shinji Mikami, and a video showing actual Vanquish gameplay.